Mom warns about fidget spinner choking hazard

Kelly Rose Joniec says her daughter Britton ended up in the emergency room after accidentally swallowing part of the gadget, which then had to be surgically removed from her throat. The family did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but local media report Britton is 10 years old.

Joniec, who lives in the Houston area, was driving the girl home from a swim meet on Saturday when she heard Britton “make an odd retching noise in the back seat,” she wrote on Facebook.

“Looking back in the mirror, I saw her face turning red and drool pouring from her mouth — she could utter noises but looked panicked so I immediately pulled over,” Joniec wrote.

“She pointed to her throat saying she’d swallowed something, so I attempted Heimlich but there was no resistance. She said she’d put part of her fidget spinner in her mouth to clean it and somehow swallowed it.”

An ambulance took the girl to Texas Children’s Hospital, where an X-ray showed the spinner bushing lodged in her esophagus. Doctors had to use an endoscope to find and remove the metal object during surgery that required general anesthesia, Joniec wrote. TODAY has reached out to the hospital for comment.

“Fortunately we had a positive outcome, but it was pretty scary there for a while,” Joniec noted.

“From this I wish to offer some word of caution to parents. Fidget spinners are the current craze so they are widely distributed. Kids of all ages may be getting them, but not all spinners come with age-appropriate warnings. The bushings pop out easily, so if you have young kids… keep in mind that these present a potential choking hazard.”

Other families are issuing similar alerts, with a Georgia grandmother warning that a fidget spinner came apart in her 3-year-old grandson’s hands.